Tall Order for the Columbia River

On Wednesday, I heard on the radio that an over sized ship carrying an unusually large cargo was anchored in Hammond, OR waiting to resume its journey to the Port of Portland (OR) until Thursday morning when the tide was low enough for its 185 ft. tall cargo to clear the nearly 200 ft-high Astoria-Megler Bridge. We decided to take a look:

The giant 490ft wide crane sits firm on its Post-Panamax (too big to fit through the Panama Canal) carrier and rests briefly after a month-long journey from China.

Before sunrise Thursday morning, when the tide was low, the Columbia Bar Pilots quickly outran the fog that was rolling in from Young's Bay and slipped the Zhen Hua 17 under the Astoria-Megler bridge with four feet of clearance. (Daily Astorian)

It's hard to see just how giant this structure is with the massive mouth of the Columbia River. But you can get a little reference if you look at the little dots (windows) on the sides of the ships and consider that each row of windows is about one story high.

After clearing the Astoria-Megler bridge just ahead of the fog, the Columbia River Bar Pilots turned the ship over to the Columbia River Pilots for its more difficult challenge: the 195ft Lewis and Clark Bridge at Longview, Washington...